Just Your “Typical” Day in the Shoes of an Ag Teacher

Over the last week or so I have continued to hear from my cooperating teachers “if you can survive the next few weeks, you can survive anything.” While that definitely sounds a bit intimidating, I have chose to take this challenge head on. My calendar continues to fill up and with each new event I have a sense of pride knowing that I am getting the very best opportunities to prepare me to teach on my own.

In addition to my teaching duties at Central Columbia my teaching cohort and I headed back to State College to prepare for the next step in our Teach Ag journey, interviews. These mock interviews got me thinking, when you’re applying for a new job, what is the important information you need to know before accepting a position? For some it may be salary, benefits, or maybe even what’s a typical work week look like. The last one really gets me thinking what does a “typical” work week look like in the shoes of an Ag Teacher?

Reflecting back on the past six weeks, what does the word typical even mean? I have yet to experience a typical week, one that a 9-5 job might bring, never the less these weeks have been rewarding to say the least. This past week went a little something like this:

Monday morning brought a new set of challenges as I picked up two more classes into my daily schedule. I picked up Ag 2 and Ag 3, these classes include a variety of units including MIG, TIG, and Plasma and Plumbing. A year a ago I would have feared the thought of teaching anything ag mechanics related but with the help of my amazing students i’m Getting through it just fine. More than fine, actually i’m truly enjoying these classes and I look forward to getting into the shop. In addition, I continued to teach FFA in my Ag 1 classes and feeling the pressure of teaching a class of freshman boys who are ready to get in the shop. I decided to change things up a bit and bring our chapter President, Abby Yoder to talk about her experiences in FFA. I was delighted to see that a class that’s often excessively chatty, quite down and truly listen to what she had to share. I saw students go from asking “why do we have to learn about FFA?” To intrigued students who wanted to know more. That night we headed to a school board meeting in celebration of National FFA week, where Abby gave the same presentation that she gave earlier that day and truly blew the school board away...... This was just your “typical” Monday in an Ag program.

The rest of the week continued to look something like Monday. Each day brings on new experiences, challenges, and overall new reasons to love what I do. I look forward to the busy next few weeks and all that they bring with them. I will look for areas of growth and take time often to reflect on how truly blessed I am.

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